


No Time to Think About the Past

by RottenFruitz



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: all the other characters are ocs, and i don't know how to tag them, so you just get the monsters featured, sorry 'bout that!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:22:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27666746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RottenFruitz/pseuds/RottenFruitz
Summary: Rilla's not used to thinking about the past. She was always too busy with the present and the future to pay much mind to it before. But now that she's travelling with these hunters, not constantly watching her back, she has a lot more thinking time on her hands.So, naturally, when the fledgling hunter she's been working with inadvertently brings it up, it's all she can think about. Or, more accurately, dream about.
Kudos: 1





	No Time to Think About the Past

Rilla smiled as she finally managed to get the fire going. It crackled to life, eager to be fed by the tinder she’d gathered. Once she piled the dry twigs and leaf litter onto her flame, she leaned back against the hefty, scarred foreleg of her brute tigrex and watched it eat up the kindling she’d given it. A twig snapped somewhere to her left and a few seconds later Lumine stepped into the clearing, her arms full of extra fire feed.

“You’re back early,” Rilla said, picking her teeth.

“I’m not as strong as Electra and Sami are. They sent me back ’cause they saw me struggling,” Lumine huffed, “My own palico can carry more than I can! Can you believe it?”

“Almost,” Rilla said, grinning as Lumine frowned at her. “Oh relax, it’s a joke. You can put your fire feed by Oldie’s paws.”

_ “Fire feed,” _ Lumine muttered, “Never heard anyone call it  _ that _ before.”

“My dad used t’call it that,” Rilla replied.

“Oh.”

“What do you mean,  _ oh _ ?”

“Uh, I kinda forget you have parents and stuff, you always seemed like the type of person to just  _ appear _ one day, you know?” Lumine said, rubbing the back of her neck, “Like, uh, in my hometown there was this old wyverian lady, and I never really thought of her as having parents or being young, ’cause I only ever knew her as this little old lady. If that makes sense.”

Rilla was quiet for a few seconds. She must’ve pulled a weird face, because Lumine started to look concerned. “Huh? What’s that face for?”

“You looked kinda sad for a second there, I hope I didn’t, like, upset you. I wasn’t trying to compare you to an old lady or anything.”

“Oh! I didn’t take it like that at all. I was just thinking about things,” Rilla reassured her.. Then, just as she saw Lumine’s mouth open, she added, “Things I’d rather not chat about right now.”

“Yeah, right,” Lumine said awkwardly. She stood there for a second or two, continuing to look uncomfortable, then turned to leave. “I’m gonna go get more… fire feed.”

“You do that, kid,” Rilla called to her, then sat back and smirked as Lumine responded with an exasperated,  _ “We’re basically the same age!” _

But as soon as the fledgling hunter’s footsteps disappeared into the forest, the smile on her face dropped into a frown. When was the last time Rilla had let herself think about her parents, or her family, or her hometown? She had hardly given them a second thought since she was little, mostly because… because they’d been obliterated by that  _ thing _ . That beast she refused to call a monster, because at least most monsters were just trying to survive and feed themselves—but hey, she was  _ over _ it. It had been real tragic and upsetting and all, but she was an adult now, and that was in the past. She’d made a new life, first as a thief, and now as a not-technically-slave (which was much better than being on death row, now that she thought about it); she had no time to think about the past. She needed to be in the present with Oldie and this fire. Speaking of which, it was starting to look a little low.

A little while later, everyone came back with a few huge armfuls of fire feed, more than enough to last them the night. Sami treated Rilla with a little less contempt than usual as he piled his branches and twigs next to Oldie’s forepaws; Electra, Lumine, the wyverian, and the palicos gave her a curt thank you as they dropped off their feed. After that, they started falling asleep. One by one, they found comfy places to rest while Rilla stayed awake, tending to the fire until she was too tired to keep her eyes open. When that happened, she took the fire feed and set it down where she was sure no embers could reach it, then settled against Oldie’s leg and fell asleep.

***

Rilla woke up in a flat plain, surrounded by dying, brown grass. She was lying in a dirt road, stamped down over the years by aptonoth, felyne, and human footsteps. A cool breeze brought her to her senses, and she jumped to her feet. She was young again.

_ Oh god, she was young again. _

Her strange genetics hadn’t set in yet; her beard hadn’t grown in; her voice hadn’t deepened more than it was supposed to. Her curly hair still fell down past her ears. She was standing in the middle of the road leading up to her village in her dress her aunt had sewn for her, clutching a piece of jerky in one little hand while a scrawny jaggi nipped at it.

“Chewy?” Rilla asked, letting the jerky fall from her hand. Chewy eagerly snapped it up, getting dirt in his snout and mouth from how vigorously he was going at it.

“Rilla! Get over here girlie!” Her father’s gruff, but kindly, voice beckoned her over to her house, where all her neighbors and family were gathering. “We’re having a cookout! We got  _ meat pies _ !”

Rilla’s mouth watered. Even in dreamland, she couldn’t resist meat pie.

“Come on, Chewy!” she called out as she ran towards her father. The jaggi sniffed the air, recognized the scent of meat pie, and hurried after her.

The village was fairly tiny. There were probably about two hundred people there, but to Rilla, there were about a thousand of them gathered around outside their houses with baskets of food. Her own house was flanked on either side by temporary trading stalls people had made from out of their houses, where they sold whatever food they were best at making. Her dad’s was most popular by far, though. Nobody made pastries or meat pies better than he did.

Rilla ran up to her dad and threw her arms around his neck as he leaned down to hug her. When they broke apart, he held out two fresh, almost burning hot meat pies in his calloused hands. Rilla and Chewy eagerly took them, then ran off to go play again. They were oblivious to the danger.

They ran around the village, kicking up sizable clouds of dust as they took turns pretending to be the hunter catching their prey. They didn’t notice the bustle of the village calming down, then quieting, until Rilla’s dad screamed at them, his voice urgent. Rilla didn’t remember what he’d said that day, but she could never forget what came after it.

The world slowed down. Colors started to blur together, all Rilla could see was Chewy and her dad and…

_ The beast. _

You could never convince her that it was a deviljho. It  _ wasn’t _ a deviljho. It was an alien, a being of pure evil hidden in the skin of a deviljho. And she knew she was right, because she’d seen deviljho before, and none of them were as horrifying as this one.

It charged, crashing through houses and turning people into puddles of red. Chewy shrieked in terror, people ran in all directions, but they became blurs of color, too. All she could see was her dad. Her father. Her father being scooped up into the beast’s maw, her father being crushed between unnaturally long, yellowed teeth, a single arm that dropped to the ground, bloodied and torn.

She was brought back into the moment by a sharp pain in her own arm. Chewy was biting her, trying to drag her away. He’d left a shallow bite mark in her flesh. The sight of her own blood stirred up some primal fear in her, and she turned and bolted towards the cover of the woods Chewy wanted to flee to.

Her feet, bare and exposed, were torn up by the ground. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst. She couldn’t see where she was going, she only knew she was hurtling towards a blob of muted greens and browns. Chewy’s tail waved in front of her, giving her something to focus on as she ran.

_ I’m alone. Dad is dead. I’m alone. I’m alone. That thing is going to kill me. I’m alone. Dad is dead. That thing is— _

***

Rilla instinctively clapped her hands over her mouth as she woke up. Hot tears rolled down her face as she resisted the urge to let out a violent sob. Oldie opened one orange eye, then stared down at her rider sympathetically as she ran out into the woods, dropped to her knees, and threw up. The sun was rising now, and Rilla was well aware her companions would be up soon. She had to compose herself. Praying it wouldn’t be Sami who would be sent looking for her when everyone woke up to find her gone, she staggered to her feet, and headed for the nearest body of water. Oldie watched her with sad eyes as she disappeared into the forest.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope ya enjoyed!!!


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